[chisel cutting stone]
The best part for me is when I get to cut stone,
I lose myself in it and I just, I love it.
I forget about everything else and
just the rhythm of the chisel hitting the stone
is magical to me.
[chisel cutting stone]
My name is Lara Townsend.
I've been working with stone for eight years now
as a stonemason, stone carver and letter cutter.
I run my business Rock Paper Chisels
from my home and also a workshop in Edinburgh,
although I travel all over the UK for work.
I really liked the idea that I was helping to contribute
to heritage and keeping that for future generations,
but also that I was learning a trade and a skill.
I think stonemasonry is an amazing career for young people.
It's great if you enjoy working with your hands,
it's also a wonderful job to do
if you're interested in travelling because
there's skill shortages all around the world,
and there's many places that need those skills.
It's also great if you want to stay in Scotland
or elsewhere in the UK.
In Scotland, we have so many old buildings
that need repair work
and there's also lots of new builds that need cladding
and other work that needs done, even just rebuilding walls.
There are different types of stonemasons.
So you get banker stonemasons who primarily do cutting
and fixer masons who do the building of stone.
With your employer you will either be working
as a banker mason or a fixer mason,
but when you go to college, you will learn how to do both.
What I did after I qualified
is I did further training in stone carving
and letter cutting, so that's more what I focus on
at the moment.
Depending on which one you are specialised in
or what your job role was,
you could be going out building one day,
you could be cutting another day.
You might be making the templates for cutting,
looking at drawings.
You could be speaking to clients about work
that they needed done.
You could be looking at a building that was in need of some
intervention work and consulting on that.
And you could be doing a mixture of cutting and building.
I think it's really important to follow
what you're interested in.
Sometimes that journey can take a while to get to
doing the job that you love doing.
I was doing a degree in history of art
and architectural history and as part of that,
I did a lot of architectural conservation modules
and I realised this was something
I was very passionate about.
I applied for the stonemasonry apprenticeship
with Historic Environment Scotland.
I went through the interview process and got the job.
I was based at Glasgow Cathedral,
although we worked on other monuments as well
and I went to college in Stirling.
I chose to do the extra level
which was advanced craft in my third year
and then you need to spend the fourth year
doing your apprenticeship to become time served,
as well as passing your skills test.
Getting to work on Glasgow Cathedral was a dream.
It's an amazing building
and I was lucky enough to be there
at a point when we were doing some very interesting
tracery cutting.
There was two gargoyles cut during my time there as well
and I managed to get a craft fellowship in stone carving
also with Historic Environment Scotland.
Then when I was finished that I managed to get
a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust award
to do stone carving and letter cutting
and now I'm my own boss and I can offer people
stonemasonry skills, letter cutting and stone carving.
One of the highlights of my career so far
has been getting to work
on the Four Courts building in Dublin.
It's a really interesting project because
we were involved with the Digital Documentation team
as well, so they laser scanned an example capital stone
for us and I had a 3D printer that I could work from
to do the carving.
So it was being done in a really traditional way,
but also using modern techniques.
So it was very interesting from that perspective
and it was also a great piece of work to do
because it was stonemasonry, but also carving,
which is where my interest was taking me
was more towards carving at that point.
I absolutely love my job
and one of the best things about it
is that I get to leave my mark on history.
[music]